Mads Larsen (born 20 September 2001) is a Danish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays for

Esbjerg fB Esbjerg forenede Boldklubber (; commonly known as Esbjerg fB or EfB in short) is a Danish professional football club based in Esbjerg, West Jutland, that plays in the 2nd division, the third-tier of the Danish football league system. Found ...

Career

Larsen signed his first youth contract on his 15th birthday.Esbjerg fB skriver kontrakt med 15-årige Mads Larsen
dbold.dk, 21 September 2016 Larsen took the step from the U17 squad directly to the first team squad. On 19 November 2017, Larsen got his official debut for

in the Danish 1st Division, making him the youngest debutant in the history of the club, with his 16 years and two months of age. He came on the pitch from the bench with half an hour left of a game against Brabrand IF. Larsen played eight league games and scored one goal in the 2017/18 season and helped the team gain promotion to the

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each ye ...

. He was permanently promoted to the first team squad for the 2018/19 season. On 19 Augustus 2018, he made his debut in the

for Esbjerg, making him the youngest debutant in the Superliga in the history of the club in a 1–0 victory against Brøndby IF. On 24 July 2021, Larsen was appointed new

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

by head coach

Peter Hyballa Peter Hyballa (born 5 December 1975) is a German professional football manager, who last managed AS Trenčín. He also served as manager at clubs in Germany, Namibia, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland and Denmark. Before his career as a manager, ...

. Four days later, on 28 July, 21 of Esbjerg's first-team players including Larsen sent an open letter to club management, expressing "strong distrust" to Hyballa. The letter, which was also published in several media outlets, mentions several episodes where Hyballa had physically or mentally abused players. As a result, he was benched for the next game against

FC Helsingør FC Helsingør is a Danish football club from Helsingør. The club plays in the Danish 1st Division, having been promoted after winning the Danish 2nd Division The 2nd Division ( da, Danmarksturneringens 2. division or Herre-DM 2. division) i ...

on 31 July, with

Nicklas Strunck Nicklas Strunck Jakobsen (; born 17 August 1999) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Esbjerg fB. Youth career Strunck started his career with Ølstykke, but after being demoted to the second team, his father, Kenn S ...

taking over as captain. In the following game on 7 August against

Lyngby Boldklub Lyngby Boldklub () is a Danish professional football club founded in 1921. It is based at Lyngby Stadion in Kongens Lyngby, Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality, a northern suburb of Copenhagen. From 1994 to 2001 the club was known as Lyngby FC. The club ...

, Larsen returned as team captain.

References

External links

Mads Larsen
at DBU
Mads Larsen
at Esbjerg fB's website {{DEFAULTSORT:Larsen, Mads 2001 births Living people People from Esbjerg Danish men's footballers Esbjerg fB players Danish Superliga players Danish 1st Division players Danish 2nd Division players Association football midfielders Denmark youth international footballers Sportspeople from the Region of Southern Denmark